Language and Media Dictionary of Key Terms (April 2016) Martin Montgomery

mass communication media n. The study of how information is conveyed through the mass media to large audiences, sometimes ‘live’, but usually in a short space of time. As a field of study it is generally considered to include newspaper, magazine and book publishing as well as radio, television and film, especially insofar as these are media for disseminating news, editorial and advertising. In the US academy it has been long concerned with how the content of mass communication affects the behavior or attitudes of its audiences. mmo

mass media media n. ways of communicating publicly with indefinitely large audiences, often over a short period of time. Traditional mass media, such as print, film and broadcasting, are based upon capital-intensive technologies and institutionalized techniques for distributing a standardized product, at relative speed, over wide distances. The term itself comes to refer not only to the technologies (e.g., print, radio, television) but also to the institutions that use the technologies and the forms carried by them. Increasingly, the mass media have come to be distinguished from the newer digital and social media, which are seen as more expressive, interactive and community-based than traditional mass media. mmo

mass production media n. technique for making multiple copies of a standardized product, usually by using an assembly line in which the product passes from worker to worker who each contribute partially and sequentially to its completion. mmo

McLuhanism media n. phrase, concept or saying derived from the work of the Canadian media theorist, Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). As one of the most important C20th philosophers of the media, McLuhan set out to chart their respective influences. These he described in technologically deterministic terms. Some of his insights he summed in pithy sayings such as: “news, far more than art, is artifact”, “all advertising advertises advertising”; and, most famously, “the medium is the message”. mmo

mediasphere media n. the totality of mediated communication especially as it has developed in the age of the internet. The term has gained currency by extending the notion of the public sphere, which applied most obviously either to public gatherings or to print communication, to the age of digital communication. mmo